Lest Darkness Fall Read Free Page B

and
money changer. He took a deep breath and went in.
     
                S. Dentatus had a face
rather like that of a frog. Padway laid out his change and said: "I ... I
should like to change this into local money, please." As usual he had to
repeat the sentence to make himself understood.
     
                S. Dentatus blinked at the
coins. He picked them up, one by one, and scratched at them a little with a
pointed instrument. "Where do these — you — come from?" he finally
croaked.
     
                "America."
     
                "Never heard of
it."
     
                "It is a long way
off."
     
                "Hm-m-m. What are these
made of? Tin?" The money changer indicated the four nickel coins.
     
                "Nickel."
     
                "What's that? Some
funny metal they have in your country?"
     
                "Hoc ille."
     
                "What's it worth?"
     
                Padway thought for a second
of trying to put a fantastically high value on the coins. While he was working
up his courage, S. Dentatus interrupted his thoughts:
     
                "It doesn't matter,
because I wouldn't touch the stuff. There wouldn't be any market for it. But
these other pieces — let's see —" He got out a balance and weighed the
bronze coins, and then the silver coins. He pushed counters up and down the
grooves of a little bronze abacus, and said: "They're worth just under one
solidus. Give you a solidus even for them."
     
                Padway didn't answer
immediately. Eventually he'd have to take what was offered, as he hated the
idea of bargaining and didn't know the values of the current money. But to save
his face he had to appear to consider the offer carefully.
     
                A man stepped up to the
counter beside him. He was a heavy, ruddy man with a flaring brown mustache and
his hair in a long or Ginger Rogers bob. He wore a linen blouse and long
leather pants. He grinned at Padway, and reeled off: " Ho, frijond,
habais faurthei! Alai skalljans sind waidedjans ." Oh, Lord, another
language! Padway answered: "I ... I am sorry, but I do not
understand."
     
                The man's face fell a
little; he dropped into Latin: "Sorry, thought you were from the
Chersonese, from your clothes. I couldn't stand around and watch a fellow Goth
swindled without saying anything, ha, ha!"
     
                The Goth's loud, explosive
laugh made Padway jump a little; he hoped nobody noticed. "I appreciate
that. What is this stuff worth?"
     
                "What has he offered
you?" Padway told him. "Well," said the man, "even I can
see that you're being hornswoggled. You give him a fair rate, Sextus, or I'll
make you eat your own stock. That would be funny, ha, ha!"
     
                S. Dentatus sighed
resignedly. "Oh, very well, a solidus and a half. How am I to live, with
you fellows interfering with legitimate business all the time? That would be,
at the current rate of exchange, one solidus thirty-one sesterces."
     
                "What is this about a
rate of exchange?" asked Padway.
     
                The Goth answered: "The
gold-silver rate. Gold has been going down the last few months."
     
                Padway said: "I think I
will take it all in silver."
     
                While Dentatus sourly
counted out ninety-three sesterces, the Goth asked: "Where do you come
from? Somewhere up in the Hunnish country?"
     
                "No," said Padway,
"a place farther than that, called America. You have never heard of it,
have you?"
     
                "No. Well now, that's
interesting. I'm glad I met you, young fellow. It'll give me something to tell
the wife about. She thinks I head for the nearest brothel every time I come to
town, ha, ha!" He fumbled in his handbag and brought out a large